A Plea for my Sister.

This is a picture of my sister Marissa and her husband. I love my sister and would cross shark infested waters for her if she needed me. My beautiful sister has been trying to have a baby for 8 years. They have done chlomid, AUI, invitro, basically everything to no avail. For about the last 2 years they have been on the list to adopt but still no baby. About 7 months ago they got a phone call that there was a baby for them and they needed to pick him up the next day. She quit her job and they excitedly went to the store and bought a carseat, clothes and items for the new addition. The next day they went to pick him up and after anxiously waiting for over 2 hours found out that the birth mother changed her mind and was giving the baby to someone else. They went home with an empty carseat in the back of their car and worst of all empty arms once again. Like so many of us, there is nothing she wants more than to be a stay at home mommy. I know they will be awesome parents. They have so many wonderful gifts and talents to share but most importantly lots of love. More than anything I wish there was something I could do and that I wasn't so helpless. As I sit snuggling my 3 beautiful children and her none, I don't know what else to do. So, here is my plea. If you know of ANYONE who is considering adopting their baby PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE, pass along their information. They have a blog (johnandmarissa.blogspot.com), it has links to their profiles through LDS family services and adoption.com. Thank you.

Better late than never...

Okay, okay, I know I haven't posted in forever but with the holidays, and everything with Cooper, and being busy with our other 2 children, it has been crazy. So, the latest with Cooper is that we took him to a pulmonologist a week and a half ago and they believe there is a little cause for concern. On Feb 19 & 20 we will be taking him to the UCSF Children's hospital in San Francisco where they will be running some tests. The first one will be a bronchoscope where they will put him to sleep and then scope his lungs and get some cultures and blood. They will also be doing an echocardiogram (his heart beats to quickly), a swallow study ( to make sure he swallows correctly and is not swallowing into the wrong pipe), and a 24 hour probe to monitor the amount of stomach acid to check for reflux (if reflux is bad enough it is possible to inhale the acid vapors into your lungs). Hopefully this will be the end of his woes and they can figure out what is causing him so much trouble and fix it.

The holidays were great. We spent them in Las Vegas and Cedar City visiting our families. Christmas is so fun with the kids getting a little bit older. New Years was uneventful as we were so exhausted we didn't even make it to midnight. The kids thouroughly enjoyed their cousins and grandparents. They even got to play in the snow while we were in Utah. Here are a few pictures.

Christmas Sunday

Cooper playing under the tree. He loved looking up at the lights.

Aunt Marissa and Cooper Christmas Eve.



Seth Loves flashlights!! Santa put this in his stocking.



Dressed for the snow.

Snow fight with daddy

Nap with Mama Thom

Isabelle enjoying some time with her cousin Kyle.

Anyway, it was great to see all of our family especially around the holidays. We feel extremely blessed and are thankful for our family and everything we have.

So to wrap this up I have to share what happened while we were at church today. A member of the bishopric came and got me out of Sharing time (I teach Sunbeams). In my head I was thinking I was set apart last week, maybe they forgot. He pulls me into the hallway to let me know that someone who came late noticed a car had been broken into and it was mine. Needless to say the thief busted out my passenger window, stole my COACH purse and COACH wallet (not cheap). We spent the last bit of church calling our debit and credit cards, cancelling them (they had already used them). I also had my checkbook and some giftcards(which they zeroed out, one of which was my dear friends) in there along with drivers license, health insurance and everything else!! What a pain. Now I have to get my window fixed, replace all of my cards, change my bank account and personal identification and I am out a nice purse. BUMMER! It was an eventful Sunday. I have alot of fun things to look forward to tomorrow (sarcasm). Oh well, nothing I can do to change it, just fix it and move on. I will post pictures of the wreckage later.